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Wednesday, July 27, 2016

It's time for a journey through the NBC Thursday schedule in 2015-16...

fall

Year

8:00

8:30

9:00

9:30

10:00

10:30

Avg

2014-15

The Biggest Loser

The Biggest Loser

Bad Judge

A to Z

Parenthood

Parenthood

68

2014-15

74

74

63

51

74

74

68

2014-15

74

74

63

51

74

74

68

2014-15

74

74

57

57

74

74

68

2015-16

Heroes Reborn

Heroes Reborn

The Blacklist

The Blacklist

The Player

The Player

84 (+23%)

2015-16

93 (+25%)

92.6823952487332

103 (+81%)

103 (+81%)

57 (-23%)

57 (-23%)

84.2913965019343

VsAvg

-20%

-0.196292393595406

-20%

-0.199650605671357

-57%

-0.565851842255686

-33%

Rank

7/15

7/15

11/15

11/15

12/15

12/15

11/15

The revival of Heroes was front-loaded and fell to bubble levels by season's end, but it was still a definite improvement on most of what NBC has been airing on Thursday since The Office. And a stable fall for The Blacklist got a chance to run up some huge gains relative to last year's dud comedies Bad Judge and A to Z. The gains promptly ended at 10/9c with weak newbie The Player.

winter

Year

8:00

8:30

9:00

9:30

10:00

10:30

Avg

2014-15

The Biggest Loser

The Biggest Loser

The Blacklist

The Blacklist

Allegiance

Allegiance

79

2014-15

72

72

113

113

51

51

79

2015-16

You, Me and the Apocalypse

You, Me and the Apocalypse

The Blacklist

The Blacklist

Shades of Blue

Shades of Blue

78 (-1%)

2015-16

50 (-31%)

50.0190704516973

102 (-10%)

102 (-10%)

83 (+62%)

83 (+62%)

78.4040756279627

VsAvg

-54%

-0.544332034532014

-23%

-0.234997933823599

-32%

-0.321043444734364

-36%

Rank

15/15

15/15

12/15

12/15

8/15

8/15

13/15

The Blacklist continued to hold up well early in the winter, as You, Me and the Apocalypse wasn't too big of a problem at least at the start, and Shades of Blue brought some real interest to the 10/9c hour. Most of Apocalypse's true megabomb results came after Blacklist embarked on a lengthy hiatus. And that hiatus made Shades of Blue's continued 1.0+ results look all the better.

spring

Year

8:00

8:30

9:00

9:30

10:00

10:30

Avg

2014-15

Dateline

Dateline Wed

The Blacklist

The Blacklist

Dateline

Dateline Wed

72

2014-15

65

65

92

92

57

57

72

2015-16

Strong

Strong

The Blacklist

The Blacklist

Game of Silence

Game of Silence

59 (-17%)

2015-16

47 (-28%)

47.1993679507437

87 (-5%)

87 (-5%)

44 (-24%)

44 (-24%)

59.418078788209

VsAvg

-54%

-0.537716527617005

-30%

-0.296763543914238

-63%

-0.632357646405528

-48%

Rank

15/15

15/15

11/15

11/15

14/15

14/15

14/15

Blacklist had at least one respectable companion in the first two sections of the season, but not so much in spring when it was joined by Strong and Game of Silence. Despite huge flops in both surrounding hours, it was down just a bit in Plus for the spring episodes.

Heroes Reborn: It beat the last season of the original series in Plus, which goes down as a good result considering how fast that show was decaying. But the network had enough other successes this season that I agree with their decision to not roll the dice again with this limited series.

You, Me and the Apocalypse: This year's textbook of example of "the media isn't good at interpreting series premiere ratings." Felt like we were gearing up for a five-year run based on all the lauds that 1.2 got!

Strong: Not strong.

The Blacklist: This show set a high standard on Monday after The Voice, and I think the general sense is that it has not lived up to that billing on Thursday. But getting league average-ish ratings essentially on an island should not be discounted. The massively DVRed series is heading for 10/9c, which will probably further hurt its ability to get ratings counted within the Same Day window. Grade: C+.

The Player: Not a player.

Shades of Blue: Nice work with a ton of repeat lead-ins in the second half of the season. Season two is headed for Sunday at midseason. If nothing else, Chicago Justice should at least be a consistently original lead-in?

Game of Silence: Silent.

The names in this last table link to the shows' War of 18-49 pages. Links with an asterisk(*) have been updated with the new info. Updates to younger shows will come later in the summer.

Check back tomorrow for this day's new Schedules Plus! Till then, you can refer to the old version.